Scottish Borders Hill Rally

With Ben Gott, who was fighting it out to defender his title. He lost out to Edd Cobley

Yours truly with Jake Sanson

Awwwww man! What a bloody fantastic weekend I’ve just had. I headed to the Scottish Borders to help assist AJK Productions with their filming of the Scottish Hill Rally. Must say it was quite the eye opener and proved to me that I’m still very much a tom boy underneath my fake bake.

I like to go fast in things, maybe this is why I live my life at 100 miles an hour? (Light buuuulb!) Well the Scottish Hill Rally gave me lots of opportunity to day dream about fast cars. There’s something very sexy about speed, and something very dreamy about racing around corners in mud and rain.

You know the sport is tough when drivers are identified by their blood group!

While I was promised a weekend of shooting the track from a hillside vantage point and dressed in hundreds of layers, (thanks Northface) I considered myself lucky enough to stay in the service area and help assist sports commentator Jake Sanson (One take Jake) and camera guy Anthony Hollings ( TV Tony) interview the drivers before, in between and after stages of the rally.

For a first timer in an area like this, the energy surrounding the rally was infectious and just damn awesome! It wasn’t hard to grasp the enthusiasm from the drivers and crew. Most of the service crew and marshals volunteer at the rallies, which tells you a lot about people’s love for the sport. It’s a real passion and I always admire people who commit to something 100%. Getting up for 5am starts to stand in the beautiful Scottish weather is a job you do for love, I can tell you that much.

The race was spread over two day, with 13 stages in all and is a yearly event run by Land Rover UK. While the competition was tough, the overall title was taken by Chris Bird and the Land Rover Defenders title was clinched by Edd Cobley. Edd did amazing coming up from 36th in the race to 6th overall! Beatign defender Ben Gott with some amazing driving!

Lisa Saxton and Andy Jones with car 20, Bowler Wildcat

I was championing car 20 a Bowler Wildcat, driven by Andy Jones and Lisa Saxton. My radar immediately drawn to a woman in racing gear! Lisa’s background is Motor cycling, but after having a child, she came to Motor Sport as a safer option. The transition in the team at the start of day one to the end of day two was amazing to witness. At the start they were humble and going out to do their best yet as the stages went by and they were doing well, the energy levels were sky high!

The team spirit in the service area was altogether just something special. Everyone joked, cared and bantered with each other. There was no ‘them against us’ mentality at all, everyone was in it together. Lisa told me that as they went out on the second day, they came across a car over turned and stopped to get it back up the right way. “That’s what this is like” she said, confirming that this is very much a passionate and team orientated sport.

Mucking about innitOuch

The girly part in me loved seeing the cars going out all shiny and the tom boy in me adored them coming back all muddy. I was desperate to have a go around the track, and luckily came away with a few offers to do this elsewhere. Watch this space for that.

Another great part of the weekend was working alongside the production company. I adore location work and love that team spirit as you chase the stories of the day, the championship was close and there was plenty of anticipation of whether a car would move up the table or fall behind. A few cars came out in the last stage of the first day, a night stage, and provided shocks exit stories.

Defender Champ Edd Cobley being interviewed for Motors TVCARS!Wowee!

Working with Jake Sanson was also fun, and we’ll catch up with him late run the blog to hear more about his career to date and his radio station Downforce Radio, where you can catch Jake on Mondays and Thursdays. You can catch the rally, nicely edited by AJK Productions on the 19th December, 2014. Tune in!

What now for this girl? There’s a fair amount of follow up stories around the rally , so let’s say the future is bright and perhaps a little muddy and cold too, ALL GOOD!

The beautiful Scottish CountrysideSittting in the co-drivers seat of the Bowler Wildcat, car 20!